Embrace the Journey: Strength Makes a Difference

We have a great place to walk

I have a lesson with Trainer Jeanne every Tuesday morning. This is typical of how we begin:

Hey Jeanne! I’m already warmed up. We got our five miles in before coming. I like to get my walking in before it gets hot. Afternoon walks are laborious! What are we doing today?

We’re going to start with the curtsy squat.

Good. I must need it because it makes me fatigued in the hips.

Mountain climber is next. Where is that padded box? 

Thomas thinks this is a great exercise for me. When I showed this to him yesterday, he suggested that I go much slower and get full extension with my legs. He also said to up-lift, un glue? What’s that term you use? Anyway, it’s much harder than moving fast!

Trainer Jeanne 

I’ve had two other trainers before Jeanne, Lacey and Evan. They were both very good. Each one had a different style, but they both worked with me at my very beginner level. Strength and walking both improved. That was my goal.

Covid 19 paused indefinitely going to the gym. Not to be undone, I set up a modified gym at home with mats, bands and small weights. I exercised everyday using the lessons I had saved from Lacy and Evan. While I probably maintained strength, I didn't improve anything. Then I fell, fractured my hip and stopped gym work.  

By the time I was healed things, had started opening again. We stayed with Gold's Gym. They assigned Jeanne to be my trainer.  We were a good match. She’s closer to my age and has tremendous experience and knowledge from other forms of exercise like Thai-Chi, boxing, and yoga. I particularly like the way she will notice a problem I have with doing an exercise. Right there on the spot, she’ll either modify what I'm doing or devise a new exercise to address it.

One of many exercises for core and abs

My current goals are to walk farther and faster with more confidence. She gives me a full hour of exercises for all body parts including the core. The weight machines and free weights are all in the big, main room. 

I can see and feel improvement as I go up in weight. Jeanne's good at picking a good weight for me then showing me how to do anything new. She usually repeats an exercise several weeks running, sometimes changing the number of repetitions or amount of weight. Some combinations work on strength building and others work on endurance.

There’s another big, open room used for group training, that we go into occasionally. 

High Alert! She's got something hard for me in there. 

Balance is needed for the hurdles

Wonder what? Good, she’s ignoring the stairs. That's scary racing (ha-ha!) up and down those steep stairs. But, there are rails, and I hold on to them. 

Oh no, she’s going for the hurdles. It’s been a while since we’ve done that. Umm, scary but good. I’ll really concentrate and think positive. Done! I’m beginning to feel more confident and Jeanne said I’m smoother. I believe it’s transferring to walking. 

I’ve written in a blog post about how aging weakens muscles. MS surreptitiously robs muscles of strength so I have double jeopardy working. I’ve also noticed that injuries heal, but the healing takes time and I wonder if we really get back to where we started before the setback. That being said, I understand I must keep walking and strength training. Starting over is daunting as well as mentally and physically challenging.

The multi-movement (Robot) machine is a favorite 

My best bet is to continue what’s working for me: yoga for meditation and stretching; gym and strength training for walking without fatigue or pain; therapies to support everything.  I’m beginning to feel my stride. That’s  my “happy place”.

Blog posts that speak about strength building with trainers:  

https://judymanagesms.blogspot.com/2018/12/embrace-your-destiny-hard-work-pays-off.html  

https://judymanagesms.blogspot.com/2022/05/embrace-journey-youve-got-to-want-it.html